GIUSEPPE, an excellent Italian composer, was born at Faenza, in the Papal States, on 28th December 1729. He studied composition under Padre Martini, at Bologna, and in 1752 produced his first opera, *Il Re pastore*, which was performed at Faenza with the greatest success. Several other operas which he composed soon afterwards added to his high reputation. In 1756 he was called to Copenhagen as chapel-master and professor of singing to the hereditary prince. Several operas which he composed there were coldly received; and, in disgust, he resigned his employments and returned to Italy in 1765. His countrymen had half-forgotten him, and the operas which he composed for Rome, Venice, &c., had no great success. In 1769 he visited London, but could not get any of his operas performed there, and was obliged to give lessons in singing and on the harpsichord. He published, at London, six sonatas for the harpsichord, which are highly valued by professional musicians. Returning to Italy in 1770, he accepted the office of master of the Conservatory of the Ospe daletto, left vacant by Sacchini's visit to England. This was the beginning of Sarti's most brilliant career, from 1771 to 1784, during which he composed his best operas,—among these, *Le gelosie Villane*, *Giulio Sabino*, and *Le nozze di Dorina*. In 1779 he was appointed chapel-master of the Duomo at Milan, having proved his superiority over the many eminent competitors opposed to him. The hymn, psalm, and mass for six and eight real voices, which he wrote for that competition, afford evidence of his profound skill and learning. Between 1779 and 1784 he wrote a great deal of church music, besides operas. In July 1784 he was called to St Petersburg as director of court music, and was received with great favour by the Empress Catharine II. In a *Te Deum* which he composed at this time, he thought to add to the solemnity of effect by introducing cannon, to be fired at certain intervals. By the intrigues of the celebrated singer, Signora Todi, the empress was persuaded to dismiss Sarti, who then found a protector in Prince Potemkin, and employment as master of a singing school in the Ukraine, in a village presented to him by the prince. After the death of Potemkin, Sarti found means to regain the favour of the empress, who not only restored to him his former appointments, but fixed his salary at 35,000 roubles, with apartments in the palace. By her orders he formed a conservatory of music; and when the pupils gave their first concert in 1795, the empress was so much pleased that she raised Sarti to the highest rank of nobility, and bestowed a considerable territory upon him. His strength failing, he attempted to return to Italy in 1802, but was unable to proceed further than Berlin, where he died, on 28th July, aged 73. The most distinguished of Sarti's pupils was the celebrated Cherubini, who, in his work on Counterpoint and Fugue (French edit., pp. 188–195), gives, as a model, a Real Fugue, in eight parts, for two choirs, by Sarti.

Sarti was one of the most learned and skilful composers of the last century. He had the rare gift of inventing beautiful and appropriate melodies. William Shield, in his *Introduction to Harmony*, pp. 92–94, gave a charming vocal Terzetto by Sarti. Sarti's dramatic compositions amounted to forty-two; and his compositions for the church were numerous, including a *Minerve*, four *Masses*, and the *Te Deum* before mentioned. He constructed an apparatus for counting the number of vibrations made by any given sound in a second of time. Sauveur had experimented on that subject in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Sarti wrote a severe criticism upon the harmony of two passages in the introductory movement to Mozart's Quartet in C, and in the first movement of that in D minor, for two violins, viola, and violoncello. Certainly the effect of those passages is highly unsatisfactory.

(SARO, ANDREA D'AGNOLO VANNUCCHIO, called DEL, from his father's occupation of a tailor, was born in Florence in 1488. At the early age of seven years he was placed with a goldsmith, but he showed a much greater liking for the pencil than the burin at that early age. A painter named Barile, more noted for his generosity than for his knowledge of the art, took the young Sarto to instruct him in painting. The lad made great progress, and was soon transferred to the school of Pietro Cosimo, then considered one of the best painters in Italy. Sarto continued to make very steady progress; and formed an intimacy with Francio Bigio, with whom he executed numerous paintings for the public buildings of Florence. He painted a fine fresco for the ducal palace at Poggio a Caiano, and an excellent "Pieta" for the nuns of Lugo. On his return from Rome, whither he had lately gone, he painted a "Holy Family in Repose," a work of great merit; and executed his "Descent of the Holy Ghost," the "Birth of the Virgin," and "Last Supper," for the monastery of Salvi. The story told by Lanzi, of the soldiers being astounded by the latter painting at the siege of Florence in 1529, need not be repeated in the artist's favour. A band of wild soldiers, bent on plunder, could scarcely be expected to have either the patience or taste necessary for estimating such a sublime work of art. Yet painting, probably, like the music which Orpheus drew from his lyre, has charms capable of fascinating alike the wild savage and the lettered Roman. Sarto was afterwards engaged on a "Dead Christ" for Francis I., King of France, when that monarch gave him a most regal invitation to his court. Andrea went to Paris, and was feasted and robed in great magnificence, when suddenly, on the receipt of a letter from his wife, a woman who possessed the single merit of great personal attractions, he immediately left for Florence, with the intention of procuring pictures for the king, by whom he was entrusted with a considerable sum for that purpose. Notwithstanding his solemn pledge to return again to Paris, the artist spent his time and squandered away the king's money. Sunk in poverty and despondency, filled with public and domestic wretchedness, abandoned by his wife and all his former associates, he died of the plague in 1530, in his forty-second year. Bryan makes his death occur much